Chess dress-ban: Federation to clarify incident

KUALA LUMPUR: THE Malaysian Chess Federation will soon clarify the recent incident involving a 12-year-old girl, who had to withdraw from its competition recently for allegedly wearing a “seductive” dress.

A lawyer for the federation, who wished to be identified only as Izam, said yesterday that a press conference would be called soon to explain the situation.

“We will clarify soon. We will let you know when it will be held.”

The girl was reportedly a participant in the National Scholastic Chess Championship 2017 held in Putrajaya on April 14.

The photo of the girl, wearing a short-sleeved black and orange striped knee-length dress, was shared in social media and had caused a public outcry.

Competition director Sofian A. Ahmad declined to comment.

In a Facebook posting, chess player and coach Kaushal Khandar had expressed shock and outrage over the incident.

He said the girl, who was his student, was “embarrassed” when the tournament director and chief arbiter made the comments about her dress during the match.

Kaushal claimed that the chief arbiter had informed his student that her attire had breached the tournament’s dress code. He alleged that the tournament director was the one who decided her dress was not proper, and the chief arbiter had asked her mother to buy long slacks for the next day’s match at about 9am.

The girl’s mother failed to get an explanation from the director and her daughter was forced to pull out of the tournament.